Raise the Hammer

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Mississauga residents will have to do without almost $1 billion in new projects and repairs over the next decade in the face of a budget reality that will also mean stiff tax increases.

“They’ll have to be (postponed) unless we want to tax people out of their homes. And I don’t think any member of council wants to do that,” Mayor Hazel McCallion said after an early budget presentation Wednesday.

Next year’s fiscal picture isn’t rosy.

Staff have projected that increases of 6.9, 4.7 and 7.5 per cent on the city’s share of the property tax bill will be needed in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 as the city struggles with its first wave of maturing infrastructure while growth-related development dollars dry up.

“We fought 12 years to get the (city’s share of the) gas tax, but we won,” McCallion said, pressing the point that Ottawa needs to step up to help municipalities struggling with aging infrastructure and transit needs.

Asked if she will push for a land transfer tax similar to Toronto’s — an idea she was lukewarm to last year — McCallion stepped back from the idea, saying the private sector might have to partner in more planned projects.